


an impulse just like love

by orphan_account



Category: Haikyuu!!
Genre: Gen
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2015-06-23
Updated: 2015-06-23
Packaged: 2018-04-05 18:06:42
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,423
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/4189752
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/orphan_account/pseuds/orphan_account
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Yui would like to find a gift for Daichi before they graduate (just captain to captain! really!) and asks for help.</p>
            </blockquote>





	an impulse just like love

**Author's Note:**

  * For [tookumade](https://archiveofourown.org/users/tookumade/gifts).



> title taken from the perfume song ‘polyrhythm’. set before the spring tournament and after the tokyo training arc.

It’s a nice day to go shopping. Yui shades her eyes from the summer sun and scans the crowd for familiar faces--there, behind a cluster of girls--Shimizu gives a little wave, the blonde at her shoulder also hesitantly waving.

“Michimiya,” she greets, and Yui has never quite seen Shimizu smile as widely as she is now, “Meet my underclassman, Yachi Hitoka.” 

“Ah, yes, hello, um, Michimiya-senpai.” She bows, fingers already nervously twisting at the hem of her cardigan. “It’s, um, so good! To meet you!” Her voice is kind of high-pitched from nerves, eyes bright and mildly terrified. She’s seen it before, in freshman recruits still scared of approaching the net, so Yui adopts her best senpai-smile and tries not to ruffle her hair.

“Did you wait long?” Shimizu inquires, while Yachi fights down a pink blush on her cheeks.

“No, not at all.” Yui looks around and lowers her voice, whispering, “And, uh. Thank you for coming out today. I really appreciate the help in, um, finding a gift.” Yui’s probably sporting a bit of a glow herself. They stay like that, Shimizu waiting for Yachi and Yui to come back in silence, until Yui shakes herself out of it. “Right. Should we go?”

Shimizu walks in lockstep with her underclassman, Yui at the front. She can hear Yachi say something quietly, mumbling under her breath about _kidnapping, oh no_ and tries to remember the plot for a popular murder-mystery drama some of her teammates are fond of. “Yachi-chan,” she starts, and Yachi squeaks a little in response. “Do you watch _Detective X_?”

(Yachi keeps from her upperclassmen the following train of thought: _the television show? Why television? Do I seem like someone who watches a lot of TV? A bad student with too much time on her hands? Will Kiyoko-san think so? Does she also think I’m a terrible student? Should I have brought last term’s report card? What if I brought it and it’s actually a fake report card and I’m actually failing? As a student? In life??_ ) Shimizu carefully nudges Yachi back to life ( _pretty girl contact shock, help me_ ). 

“Ahhh, umm, no? I don’t watch television. I don’t own a television. Please don’t fail me.” Yui blinks. Shimizu gives off the air of mild amusement while remaining deadpan, somehow--she’s got to learn how she does that.

“Okay,” Yui says slowly, and doesn’t press the subject. The chatter and noise of the street fill the silence between them, Shimizu the only one out of the three to even look remotely at ease. Passersby part easily for them, Yui glancing every so often into store windows to see--just to see--if there would be something nice.

 

“Ahh? Yacchan? Kiyoko-san?” Yui stops in her tracks while Yachi bows furiously to a woman with dyed blonde hair and blunt-cut bangs. Shimizu even cracks a smile. “It’s been a while!” 

“Saeko-san! It’s so good to see you! Hello!” The woman laughs and does the thing that Yui’s been wanting to do since meeting Yachi: ruffles her hair and musses up the little ponytail atop her head, puts her hand on her hip and grins widely. She reminds Yui of someone.

“I’m Tanaka Saeko.” She waves a little, but even that movement is exaggerated. “My little brother plays for Karasuno volleyball!” 

“Michimiya Yui. Pleased to meet you,” and she means it. “I captain the girls’ team.” 

“What are you girls all together for today? Is there a--” Saeko-san wiggles her eyebrows outrageously, grin widening. “Special reason? A special someone?”

“Um,” Yui coughs. Yachi turns red. Shimizu watches Yachi’s face with interest, on the off chance she might choke on thin air. “I thought, you know, I’m the? Karasuno girls’ volleyball captain, and. It would be? Nice? If, umm, captain to captain, just as a nice, um. Good job! Kind of gift.” Saeko takes pity on her after a few seconds, clapping her on the back and slinging a familiar arm around her shoulders.

“I see! I see! _That_ kind of present, haha. For Sawamura-kun? I’ve met him. Wow, to be young again.” Saeko-san is loud and expressive, just like her brother. “What are you thinking about getting?”

Yui fumbles with her words for a moment, collecting herself. “Um, kneepads? Or, haha, something else. It’s hard buying him a gift, I guess.” 

“Ahh, a volleyball gift. That’s almost professional, ahahaha--” But Saeko-san is joking, Yui can tell. “I’m out myself to buy my little brother something.” She shrugs, scrubbing at her hair to remember the item. “Socks? Like, athletic ones, there’s a brand he likes.” Her bangs are a bit of a mess now, but she shakes them loose again. 

“That’s really nice of you, Saeko-san,” Shimizu hums, and bumps Yachi lightly in the side with her elbow. 

“Let’s all go together, then,” Yui suggests, and realizes what she’s done: add one more person to her party of ‘eventual gift-giving and possible humiliation from Sawamura’. “If you don’t mind?” she adds hurriedly, and Saeko-san gives off that grin and a thumbs-up. It must be genetic: it lights up her whole face and Yui is, somehow, oddly comforted by its energy.

 

The breeze is particularly lovely today; it pulls at the hem of Yachi’s sundress while they make their way down the avenue. Shops line the sidewalk, with storefront sales occasionally catching someone’s eye. Yachi and Shimizu walk only several steps behind Saeko-san and herself, Saeko-san chatting amiably about college classes and sympathizing with Yui about entrance exams.

“And of course, it’s hard,” she shrugs, movement expressive. “But trust me, you’ll get there. And then there’s a whole world of interesting! Different classes, different people. Professors, and clubs, and,” she winks, “Boys.” Yui’s blush heats her cheeks. “Ahh, but you have someone already!” Saeko-san holds up her hands, apologetic. “Of course. How is Sawamura-kun, these days, anyway?”

Yachi makes a little squeaking noise that might, for all Yui knows, be totally unrelated to their conversation. “He’s great, the last I heard. Probably trying to figure out if he should stay for the spring tournament or not.” Shimizu makes a noncommittal noise there, in stereo to Yachi’s next little squeak of surprise. “But I doubt he’ll leave. I’m not leaving my team. We have, you know, this pride? As captains.”

Saeko-san looks like she approves of Yui’s assertiveness. “That’s cool, Yui-san. You’re a very cool girl. You’ll break hearts all over college.” And she pats her on the back when Yui smiles, laughing. 

 

The sports equipment shop is only a few more blocks down the street, but Saeko pauses on the sidewalk, stopping their entire convoy. “Bubble tea! It’s hot outside already. Yui-san, Kiyoko-san, Yacchan?” 

It’s nearly noon, the summer sun climbing the sky and slowly killing the breeze. “I could go for some,” Yui agrees, and Shimizu nods. 

Yachi digs in her purse for something, and triumphantly pulls out her phone. “I have a coupon for this place, I think.” She hands it over to Saeko, grinning. “Group discount, it says!”

“Atta girl, Yacchan,” Saeko laughs, and ruffles her little ponytail again. She manhandles Yachi into the store, arm thrown over her slight shoulders. Yui almost feels bad, but Shimizu is grinning at the sight. “Let’s go, let’s go!” 

 

Four orders of milk tea (no boba for Yachi, who had turned white for several seconds before stammering out her order) later, Saeko-san is laughing while telling a story about her hapless freshman term. 

“And, I’m telling you, it was the most horrifying thing I’ve ever had to do. I’m holding the gift in my hands, pretending I’ve known this person all my life, and sneezing into the chrysanthemum arrangement: all because my supervisor didn’t tell me what was in the basket!” Saeko-san’s laughter is infectious. It even pulls one out of Shimizu, and Yui watches Yachi giggle, reaching for her bubble tea.

It all happens in slow motion: Yui and Saeko-san stretching across the table for Yachi’s hands as she snorts into her drink, still laughing. Shimizu’s face shifts from amusement to surprise while Yachi makes a wheezing noise, airways blocked by bubble tea. “Wrong pipe, wrong pipe,” she manages, putting down her drink and flapping her hands in alarm.

(Yachi’s thought process before ordering her drink was: _if I order the tapioca balls and have them, I might choke. And if I choke, I will most likely die. I don’t want to die! My first kiss! If I have bubble tea and die today I will not have given my first kiss to anyone, except--oh, no--I’m surrounded by beautiful women! What if one of them gives me mouth-to-mouth resuscitation, and that will have been my first kiss, and then I die? Isn’t that heaven? Can I die from experiencing heaven??_ ) 

“Get her some water! Yacchan is dying here--” Saeko-san hands Shimizu a fistful of napkins, frowning at the first employee she sees.

“Please,” Yui adds, and pounds Yachi on the back until she coughs into the wadded napkins in Shimizu’s hands.

“Better?” she asks, and Yachi nods furiously. “Good.” Shimizu usually looks so unruffled in school; Yui can count on one hand, including today, the times she’s seen her look so surprised. “Thank you,” she says, accepting a cup of water from Saeko-san. “Drink up.” Yachi turns red again--not quite from embarrassment--and takes the cup from Shimizu’s hands. ( _Surrounded by beautiful girls, pretty girl proximity shock_.) 

Yui pats her between the shoulders to soothe the ache she’d probably given the poor girl, and takes her seat again across the table. They’d caused quite the ruckus, other shop patrons finally resuming their own conversations while Yachi slowly steams herself to death from embarrassment. Shimizu hovers over her underclassman, periodically offering her napkins. 

“Um, hello,” the bubble tea employee from before is frowning, holding something in his hands. “I’m terribly sorry about your experience here, miss.” He offers her a coupon, the shop name printed in cheerful lettering across the paper, and bows apologetically.

Yachi takes it from him with wide, surprised eyes, thanks him with a ragged voice. She puts it on the table next to the criminal tea. Shimizu stares at Yachi, who stares at the coupon, with a dawning look of horror on her face.

And Saeko-san is laughing, laughing until it makes Yui laugh, and there are tears in their eyes.

 

The sports equipment store is a familiar place; at least, it is for Yui and Shimizu. Yui makes a beeline for the volleyball shelves, passing by racks of colorful tennis grip tape and shoelaces. Saeko-san follows her there, picking out a pack of socks when she spots the brand she wants. 

Yui reaches out, fingers snagging the right package quickly enough, and hesitates. “Saeko-san,” she says, careful with her words. “Should I … find something else?”

“Second thoughts?” Saeko-san taps her chin with a finger, studying Yui. “Would you _like_ to find something else?”

“No,” she sighs. “It’s just hard, finding a gift for him. I want him to like--” _me_ goes unsaid, but Saeko-san looks like she understands. “The gift.”

“I’m sure he will!” Saeko-san takes her firmly by the wrist and gently drags her away from the shelves, irrepressible grin back on her face. “Now, let’s go pay before you can change your mind.” 

 

The stationery store is Yachi’s recommendation, a cute little place Yui hadn’t thought about. She browses their gift wrap selection and frowns--it seems a bit much, to give him a present as mundane as kneepads with such extravagant paper.

Several shelves over, Shimizu catches her eye with something in her hands: an orange paper bag about the size of her gift. Yui snags a small roll of white ribbon on the way and smiles when Shimizu offers her the bag. “This might work.”

Yui pops her gift in the bag and eyes it critically. Nothing sticks out and nothing rips the paper. “It definitely does,” she beams. “Thanks!” Satisfied with her solution, Shimizu goes to rescue Yachi from the terror of choosing between HB and B pencil leads. Cool and graceful, as always.

Yui looks down at the bag in her hands. It really does look nice.

 

With Yachi’s help and a pair of scissors loaned from the store clerk’s counter, the gift bag has pretty white ribbon curled at the handles. Yui guards it carefully, keeping it close to her chest while leaving the stationery shop. The sunset sprawls, purple and peach, across the horizon.

“Thanks a lot, everyone,” Yui grins, embarrassed. Their little group is a cluster dividing up the flow of people, all trying to go home. Everyone has trains to catch. “I really appreciate all of you coming out here.”

“When are you gonna give it to him?” Three pairs of eyes fix on Yui’s face, Saeko-san looking unapologetically curious.

“Ah, I thought we’d wait until we resumed school again … We’re only a week until the term starts.” Yui chews on her bottom lip nervously. “Do you think he’ll like it?” 

“Yes,” Shimizu replies bluntly. “He needs these.” 

“And, um,” Yachi fidgets, hesitant voice growing louder. “I think … if they’re from you, senpai, he’ll like them a lot.” 

Saeko-san gently claps Yachi on the back. “Nice, Yacchan! Told ya,” she laughs, and Yui’s nerves settle. “You’re gonna be just fine.”

With support like this, she will be. Overwhelmed, Yui bows at the three girls before her, back folded down perfectly in ninety-degrees. Yachi is open-mouthed with shock, surprised at such a gesture from an upperclassman. “Thank you so much for today!” Yui says, voice loud and clear, and when she comes back up she mirrors Saeko-san’s smile. “I’ll do my best.”

“As expected, from the Karasuno girls’ volleyball captain!” Saeko-san cheers. “If he rejects your gift, just let me know.” She cracks her knuckles, smile turning wicked. “I’ll talk to him, too.” 

From the storefronts to the train station, it takes the concerted efforts of Yui, Yachi, and Shimizu to talk her down. When they split up at the station, Yui is still buoyed by their energy and chatter.

 

Yui hums to herself on the way home, taking off her shoes at the door. “I’m home!” she calls, and her mother greets her back.

“Welcome home! Did you have a good day?” She puts down her gift bag on the dining table when her phone pings, a little mail icon hovering on the screen. 

_Good luck! -- Kiyoko and Hitoka_. Smiling, Yui glances down at the little orange bag and replies, “Yeah, I really did.”


End file.
